The ’72 Dolphins’ 50th anniversary celebration: Six questions with Larry Little

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Dolphins’ Perfect Season, The Miami Herald is running weekly conversations with members of the 1972 team that went 17-0.

Six questions with Hall of Fame guard Larry Little, a seven-time first- or second-team NFL All-Pro and a member of the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade team:

▪ What’s your enduring memory from that season, the one moment that you can still visualize?

“The moment Garo [Yepremian] threw that pass,” Little said, chuckling, referring to the kicker picking up his blocked field goal and throwing an interception that Washington’s Mike Bass returned for a touchdown, with just over two minutes left in the game, for the Redskins’ only score in Miami’s 14-7 Super Bowl win.

“If 40 eyes could kill when he came to the sideline, he wouldn’t live as long as he did.”

PERFECT MEMORIES

Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team

And on a less whimsical note, “I remember the glee I felt once our last regular-season game was over because we went 14-0 and that was great,” Little said. “But that’s when the pressure started coming because we knew to win the Super Bowl we had to be perfect. We had the best record in the league and we were the road team in [the AFC championship] against Pittsburgh. The weather was in our favor that day. It was 78 in Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day.”

Back then, the home teams in the playoffs were decided based on a yearly divisional rotation.

▪ You were traded from the Chargers to Miami in exchange for Mack Lamb (your former high school teammate at Miami’s Booker T. Washington) in one of the best trades in South Florida sports history. (Lamb never appeared in another NFL game after that trade.) Were you happy about it at the time of the deal in 1969?

“When I was first traded here, I was disappointed because in San Diego, we had good football teams. Not knowing what direction I was going in [crossed my mind]. But it was good to come back home to play for Miami. I played one year under George Wilson, and I was really grateful when coach Shula came, not that I didn’t like George. I didn’t know if [Wilson] would take us to a championship.”

▪ How did the ‘72 season change your life?

“I can’t pinpoint if life would have been different. We did [brand] ourselves where we have different autograph signings and memorabilia. But I’m not sure if my personal life would be different. I don’t know if it got me into coaching. I coached for 16 years, nine years at my alma mater at Bethune-Cookman. Then I was the first African American coach with World League football, in Columbus, Ohio — the Ohio Glory [for one year before it became part of the defunct NFL Europe].

“I decided to get back into college coaching and coached six years at North Carolina Central [1993 to 1998].... Then I worked for the Miami-Dade Public School system for 20 years before I retired Jan. 14.

“I smile when I think about [1972] and when people try to put us down. I smile when people call us a bunch of grumpy old men. I know we’re not grumpy old men. We are happy old men.”

▪ Who was the unsung hero on that team?

“Earl Morrall. When Bob Griese went down, nobody thought Earl could come in and lead us the way he did. He had leadership skills. When Bob was injured, Earl said, ‘Everybody calm down. Everything is going to be all right.’ He was our MVP.”

▪ How did you get the nickname Chicken?

“That followed me from San Diego. My rookie year in San Diego, we trained in Escondido, California. I would eat a lot of Mexican food. On a Saturday night, we had a day off and drove with the veterans to a strip mall where we ate at Brady Keys Fried Chicken.

“I ate the whole chicken and my teammates started calling me Chicken Little. [Former NFL lineman] Fred Woodson heard me called Chicken Little and he brought that name back to Miami, and it stuck with me. Larry Csonka still calls me Chicken.”

▪ You have a random, quirky memory from the ‘72 season?

“It used to piss me off because I was always a newspaper reader and I would sit in my locker and Jake Scott would turn the lights off. So I had to cuss him out. I always had to get up and turn them back on.”

They were friends; Scott once invited Little to stay with him in Georgia one offseason. Little declined because the South was still largely segregated at that time.